Herewith a variety of reactions:
First, I share the pessimism about the likelihood of natural language
understanding anytime in our lives. While current hardware might (and I
rather doubt that) be able to handle it, there's no question that our
ability to express the subtleties of human existence falls far short of the
level required for even simple language processing. For now, we must
discount this avenue.
I do think that it would be possible to get something working quickly using
creole grammar, but so far nobody has undertaken that task.
Absent natural language, we are forced to rely on either mangled subsets of
natural language or standardized responses -- menu structures. I have opted
for the latter because it has a nice symmetry on both input and output.
Someday I'd like to upgrade to a creole-based system.
Ken's reluctance to surrender authorial control is a common disposition; I
have prepared a number of replies to it. They can be found at
www.erasmatazz.com/library/JCGD_Volume_8/Free_Will_Determinism.html and
www.erasmatazz.com/library/JCGD_Volume_7/ControlInteractivity.html.
Lastly, I am developing a new idea that I will shortly post on my website as
a possible approach to this problem
Chris